Churning Through the Scraps

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I picked up the kit for these Churn Dash blocks at a quilt group meeting in April.  They were made from 1930s reproduction fabrics donated to the group.  I sewed the blocks on my treadle and put them together with yardage from my stash.  One of our volunteer long arm quilters will quilt it, and it will eventually be donated locally.

These colors and prints are so cheerful.  A quilt appraiser friend once told me the impression most people have of 1930s fabrics is lots of pastels, and there are plenty, but there was also widespread use of what she called "crayon colors", like red, orange, and dark blue.

The kit didn't include white squares for the centers, so I added the solid color ones.

Here's my favorite block, the one on the right.  It's made from a colorful fruit print, plus an orange solid square.  It's the only one like it in the quilt.

Orange is our Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month, and I am so glad!  I really love orange, and try to find orange fabric wherever I can. 

This week I pulled out all the big scraps, little scraps, fat quarters, etc. to start cutting.  (Does your ironing board collect mess like mine does?)

I started with Bright Hopes, since that's the easiest/fastest one.  The Hot Wheels rectangles came from Mr. M, who donated so much wonderful stash/scraps/etc. to our guild.

I'm having less time to sew now.  Want to see why?

These wild hooligans are off school for the summer.  Thank goodness we've been able to get outside most days to run off some of their energy.

I've also had a big project to work on:  cleaning out my quilt stuff in the basement.

Remember this from last week?

All of these vintage scraps have now been sorted.  Many of them were actually useless, just tiny scraps or low quality fabric, or had stains or other problems.  The bad ones have been trashed and the decent ones I didn't want/need were bagged up for the museum sale (drop off next week).

Here's what I kept:

The bag is full of feedsack strips for a string quilt.  The larger pieces of fabric next to the bag are left over from dresses I made for my oldest daughter back in 1979.  All the rest are scraps from 1930s to 1960s or so.

These are some of the fun fabrics I kept.  Bears in canoes, purple strawberries, and a floral print with what looks like the Liberty Bell on it.  I love weird stuff, old or new.

I also salvaged a rainbow of solid scraps.  They will be put to good use!

Every year, the Humane Society has a huge rummage sale at the county fairgrounds.  Last year I scored a vintage iron there for a dollar, and it lasted nearly a year.  This year I got this little G.E. iron for only 50 cents.  It's slightly smaller than my regular iron, and is a Dry Iron, so no steam.  This is perfect for me, I don't even use steam.  We'll see how long it lasts.  I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth.

The book I found at the sale is called Quilts From the Heart:  Quick Projects for Generous Giving, by Karin Renaud.  I had never seen this book before, but it's absolutely perfect for me!  Simple patterns, bright colors, and the author even loves novelty prints.  How did I miss this?  It was published in 2006.  I gladly paid 50 cents for it, and have already started one of the quilts.

Good news:  Mrs. Pfaff is back!!  My dear "coworker" and beloved sewing machine is back from the repair shop and sewing again.  I can't wait to get some quilting done.  But first I need to go to the Farmers Market, so I'd better wind this up.

Thanks for reading this long-winded spiel! Have a lovely week!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out all the great blogs at these linky parties!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Cynthia at Oh Scrap